Choice
by Zelgadis55
Summary: ABC Challenge. C - "We could play a game and I'll even let you win," he grinned cheekily. "Oh you will, will you?" Mikey wants to spend some time with Raph but Raph already has plans for the night. 2K3, Raph-centric oneshot. Please R&R, thanks!


Series: TMNT

Author: Zelgadis55

Rating: PG for a tiny bit of mild language.

Disclaimer: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and all related characters belong to Nickelodeon.

Warnings: Little bit of brotherly fluff ahead. Unbetaed.

Summary: ABC Challenge. C - "We could play a game and I'll even let you win," he grinned cheekily. "Oh you will, will you?" Mikey wants to spend some time with Raph but Raph already has plans for the night. 2K3, Raph-centric oneshot. Please R&R, thanks!

Happy Birthday, imjustpeachee. This is that Casey and Karai fic I threatened you with.

Just kidding. No Karai but it there is a bit of Casey, sorry, couldn't help it.

**Choice**

Raphael paused mid-step in the doorway leading out of the lair. He turned his head to look behind him, perfectly balanced despite his foot half out the door and still in mid-air. Behind him on the couch knelt Michelangelo, staring over the back of the seat toward him, winning grin filling his features as if he had already won the battle.

"So will you?" The hopeful voice flowed over enthusiastically.

"Already got plans, Mikey. You know that."

Raph couldn't help but notice as Mikey's face fell. He groaned inwardly as Mikey's puppy eyes made their expected appearance.

"But you've been out bashing heads with Casey every night now for the last two and a half weeks, bro!" Mikey protested. Without breaking his gaze away from Raph's eyes, Mikey stretched his leg out to the side, snagging a game controller between his toes and pulling it in close enough to take with his hand. Mikey dangled it teasingly in the air in front of him. "We could play a game, your choice and I'll even let you win," he grinned cheekily.

"Oh you will, will you?" Raph smirked, trying and not quite succeeding in his effort to prevent his brother from seeing his amusement. He stepped around to face his brother properly and casually leaned his shell against the door frame. "Ever so generous of you, Mikey, considerin' you wouldn't stand a chance against me anyway."

For a moment, Raph actually felt bad as Mikey's eyes lit up in hope.

"So you'll stay, then?"

"Nope, Casey's waitin' for me, sorry." Raph shrugged, not letting the apology be heard in the tone of his voice. He knew if showed even a smidgen of weakness, Mikey would never leave him be. Raphael held up a hand in a nonchalant wave as he turned around again to get back on his way.

"Wait!" Mikey yelped frantically, stopping Raph in his tracks once more.

Raph sighed.

"What?" he grumped.

"How about something else then? I don't really care what we end up doing, so you can choose. I just want to hang out and spend time with my favourite bro for a change." Mikey pleaded. Raph could feel Mikey's eyes locked unwaveringly on the back of his head.

"We already hung together for hours earlier."

"Training doesn't count..." Mikey sulked.

"Just... go pester Don or Leo, they're around!" With that, Raph hurriedly left, vaguely hearing Mikey whine about Leo being no fun and something about some supposedly important project as his loud voice faded into the distance the further Raph moved from the lair.

Thanks to Mikey distracting and delaying him, Raph was already running several minutes late but he wasn't overly worried. It wasn't as though his human friend was always on time himself. Raph unconsciously slowed as he ran through the sewers, heading for the manhole nearest to Casey's and his usual meeting place.

Major gang and Foot activity was down of recent and had been for a couple of months now, thanks largely to the efforts of his brothers and himself. However, because of this, the bottom feeders had become braver when they realised they no longer had the Purple Dragons, the Turks or the Foot to contend with. Bag snatchings, muggings and rapes by single individuals and small groups of two or three were slowly on the rise and neither Raph nor Casey were willing to stand by and allow it to happen just because all the bigger fish had been scared away.

As a result, Raph found himself spending less time at home and more time wandering the streets and rooftops with purpose. Even when Leo led a patrol of late, Raph took off with Casey instead. They really didn't need the full team for such small fry.

"_... could play a game... I'll even let you win"_ Mikey's voice cajoled within Raph's memory as he ran through the tunnels. Raph growled slightly and roughly pushed the memory of his annoying brother's beseeching words out of his mind.

_He had a life beyond that of just his family, dammit!_

Even if the humans above didn't realise it and were nearly always ungrateful for the help they received, they needed him. They needed both Casey and him to stand up for them against the evils of the big city when they were unable to protect themselves; not to mention that Raph actually liked to be needed. He would never let on to his family he felt that way though, in case the sneaky trolls that were his brothers ever tried to use that knowledge against him.

And they would.

But he needed to help for other reasons too.

Helping to keep the dregs of society down gave Raph a much needed outlet. It gave him a way to deal with any pent up aggression he accumulated throughout the day, which meant he was less likely to take it out on someone who didn't actually deserve it.

Or Mikey.

Whoever happened to have the unfortunate timing to trigger his temper first.

Yes, Raph knew just how much he was needed and how much _he_ needed to get out on a regular basis.

_Mikey's eyes lit up in hope. "So you'll stay, then?"_

Right at that moment, Raph really wished he had just kept going instead of lingering when his brother called out as he was leaving home for the evening.

Raph's gaze flicked ahead a few metres and he smirked when he noticed the familiar manhole coming up on him slowly. Raph frowned, suddenly realising he was only moving at a jog instead of his usual run, so he pushed himself forward again, picking up the pace as he reached the ladder leading upwards towards sanity.

Raphael listened carefully, extending all his trained senses before sliding the heavy metal cover off and climbing his way out the sewers into, relatively speaking, fresh air and took a deep breath. Even then, he still looked all around him before placing the cover securely back over the hole in the ground and darting towards the nearby fire escape.

"You're late." Casey's voice accused lightly as Raphael easily jumped from the top of the ladder onto the rooftop.

Shrugging indifferently, Raph commented, "An' you were late two nights ago, deal with it. Let's get goin'."

Casey paused a moment to stare at Raph. "You okay?"

Raph gave Casey a weird look, "I'm fine. Come on, bonehead!"

Together, the two friends and partners began running across the rooftops, heading towards an area Raph knew was usually rife with crime, both violent and otherwise. He wished fleetingly and not for the first time, that he didn't have to slow down for his friend to keep up with him.

Oh, Casey tried hard, he knew, but it wasn't like he was actually trained or anything and Raph always had to wait at least a little for him to get from one rooftop to the next. His brothers would never even pause for those jumps unless it was a particularly large gap and even then, there was barely any time wasted as grappling hooks or the like were quickly utilised on sheer instinct.

"_I just want to hang out..."_

Raph closed his eyes in exasperation. Why couldn't that knucklehead just stay out of his head already? Somehow, Mikey always had this way of getting deep into their minds, even when he _wasn't_ around.

Casey landed beside him with a thud. "I'm not puttin' ya to sleep or anythin' am I, shell-for-brains?"

Raph grunted, opening his eyes once more and looking mockingly at Casey, "I'm sure I saw a snail overtake you a few minutes back."

"Ha, ha."

A scream burst out from below, interrupting their good natured ribbing and Raph and Casey ran quickly to the edge of the roof. They looked down into the lit street and analysed the situation almost instantly. Just a purse snatcher, Raph realised, nothing too dangerous.

Pleading puppy dog eyes drifted across Raph's vision as Casey took off across the rooftop in the direction the hapless snatcher had run in.

"What are ya doin', Raph?" Casey yelled out, half in annoyance, half in concern.

Raph blinked back the phantom image, automatically pushing his body to catch up with his best friend. He palmed a pair of shuriken from his belt pouch as he ran and threw both with unerring accuracy. The first snagged hold of the criminal master-mind's jacket, pinning it deftly to the nearby lamp-pole that he was running past hard enough that it caused the idiot to swing half around it as he was yanked harshly in place. He slammed the side of his head solidly into it, making him somewhat wobbly on his feet. The second caught the handbag he was carrying, ripping it out of the guy's hand and affixing it firmly to the ground.

Casey half slid, half ran down the ladder on the side of the building to make sure the thief didn't recover fast enough to get away again while Raph watched from above, knowing he couldn't go down into the well lit, semi crowded street below. As he waited, Raph found himself uncharacteristically fidgety; an uncomfortable, vaguely... guilty feeling creeping across his mind and body; a feeling, he realised upon reflection, that he had been carrying since he left the lair. Before now however, he was too busy moving to really notice.

Several minutes later, Casey was back by Raph's side. "Sure ya not comin' down with somethin'? Ya head's not in the game tonight, Raph."

Raph stared at Casey for a moment with his intense, golden gaze. "Actually, sorry Case. I think I'm just gonna go home. Got somethin' I gotta take care of."

"More important than this?" Casey asked, tilting his hockey mask up on his head with one hand while waving out over the street below with the other.

"Yeah," Raph smiled tightly. "I'll catch up with you in a couple a nights."

Casey gazed at Raph in concern. "Yeah, okay bro. Feel better soon."

Raph snorted, "I'm not sick. Well... not in that way," he amended quickly. "I just... never mind. Call us for help _when_ you find yourself in over your head," he dug, snickering at Casey's expense as he turned and ran back the way he came.

- . - . -

A little over twenty minutes later, Raphael crept silently into the lair. Mikey was still on the couch where Raph had left him nearly an hour previously and he appeared to be half heartedly playing some kind of lame RPG. For a few minutes, Raph stood a short distance behind, just watching until his brother exhaled a heavy, pitiful sigh.

"How about puttin' in somethin' more interestin' and multi-player like Super Smash?" Raph suggested with a slight smirk that grew exponentially as Michelangelo jumped in sudden fright.

Mikey whirled around on the couch, his eyes lighting up in excitement. "Raphie! You came back?"

Raph twitched slightly at the nickname, "Yeah so don't make me regret it. Now, I believe you said it was my choice?" As Mikey nodded eagerly, Raph demanded, "So switch the game already while I grab us sodas."

Mikey's grin was so huge it nearly split his face.

As Raph went to the kitchen to fetch drinks and snacks for an evening of gaming, he knew he had definitely made the right decision. Seeing his brother so happy over something so simple and stupid as Raph merely returning home to hang out for the night made him realise what he had been missing in his life lately and he felt better than he had in days.

Owari


End file.
